Your Letters
Re your story about a steam train and a coach colliding in Dorset says that the passengers included "a party of 20 people, with the driver and foreman in the engine room". Does anyone have any idea what this could possibly mean? Can anyone guess what the reporter was actually told before it got so mangled?
Dick Hobbs, Punnetts Town, UK
To Trev, York, who questions the use of the word "nearby" in Friday's letters. You need to understand that the world of a ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ journalist (and most Londoners) consists of two places: "London" and "Outside London". As both Glastonbury and Stonehenge are in "Outside London", they must naturally be close together. This leads us to the American principle of "London" and "near London". Under this principle, every place in the UK can be considered to be "near London", ie "we stayed in a lovely hotel in Glasgow, near London". "Near" can therefore be assumed to refer to UK-wide distances of up to 1000 miles.
Dave, Cardiff
Re Mike Henry's letter, I still don't know what a chartered colourist does.
Duncan, Hove
John Storm asks why Mr Imbardelli was sacked when he was "obviously doing very good job". Shipman and Crippen aside I think I'd still like my doctor to have a least some qualifications.
James, Edinburgh, UK
Re Richard Plaskett's letter about Justyn Taylor's comment, "This is probably a perfect demonstration of the power of emotion in memory" - is that just a polite way of saying he made it up?
Matt, Seville, Spain
I was going to propose a new flexicographical term for the QE2, namely "floatel", so as to distinguish it from a cruise ship, but it appears that word's already in use - in Northwich and on the River Kwai. Back to the drawing board.
Nick Jones, Dorking